Playing With Fire
by butterflyoreo75
Summary: What do you think you're doing?" "Kissing you was the only way to get you to shut up!" "So you didn't suddenly fall madly in love with me?" Draco looked at Hermione in horror. "Granger, please."
1. Chapter 1

**Yay, my first HP fic! Whoot! And it's Dramione, whom we all know is only, like, the best couple in the entire magical and non-magical universe!**

**Disclaimer: Obviously I don't own HP. **

**I recommend listening to "Apologize" by One Republic. (Yes, considering what the story is about, it's cliché but it goes :)) **

**WARNING: More reviews, faster updates. Less reviews, slower updates.**

**Playing With Fire**

**Too Late**

"Hermione, I love you, you have to believe me," he begged, pleading her with his eyes.

Hermione shook her head in disgust, staring with hatred at the boy before her. "Did you still love me when you were fucking her?" she asked icily, her fists clenching and unclenching with every word.

Ron cowered under her withering stare. "It meant nothing, Hermione, I swear!"

"Whatever."

"Hermione, you have no idea how sorry I am. I don't want to lose you over this. Please, just give me another chance," Ron looked close to tears now. His face was a vibrant shade of red and he was shaking.

Hermione stared at him in disbelief. "Do you really think that's going to work," she hissed venomously. "Did you think I was going to say, 'Oh that's alright Ronald. Everyone makes mistakes. I forgive you.'? And then we'd go and enjoy a nice make-up snogging session in my room?"

Ron only stared at the floor.

"Well?" Hermione pressed, arms crossed in front of her as she stared at him with narrowed eyes. She couldn't remember ever feeling so angry. Ever. She wanted to do something. Like gouge his eyes out or something equally horrible and mean.

"I screwed up," Ron finally said.

"No, really?" said Hermione sarcastically.

"But I swear I never wanted to hurt you."

"Too late.

"We can get through this, can't we? You know how much I love you,"

Hermione shook her head. "No, I don't. Not anymore."

"But—"

"You need to leave," Hermione said quietly, not looking at him.

"Please, just—"

"Now," Hermione said.

Ron didn't move. "You have to understand—"

"I understand perfectly, you cheated on me! I trusted you, and you betrayed me! There isn't much place for confusion!"

"It wasn't, it's not—"

"How many times do I have to tell you? Get out!" Hermione yelled, shoving him roughly and forcing him several steps backwards. She was crying now. "Just go!" She shoved him another few feet until he was right by the door.

"You'll be sorry you did this," Ron said sadly, before stepping out inside the corridor.

Hermione answered by slamming the portrait shut in his face. She ran back to her room and locked the door, anger and sadness coursing through her veins like fire. She curled up in a ball on her bed and began to cry. She had loved Ron. She really had. But he had cheated on her. Had taken a part of himself from her and giving it to someone else. She couldn't just ignore that.

_At least we tried. _Hermione thought to herself, attempting to lighten the situation. You should always look for the silver lining, right? _Some silver lining this is_. Hermione thought sarcastically. _I don't even want to think about the consequences this will have on the friendship Harry and I have._ So she didn't.

Hermione wiped her eyes and attempted to compose herself. She still had some coursework to get to and she would be damned if she let that stupid red head ruin her perfect marks in her classes. With one final sniffle she sat up and grabbed her bag off the floor, taking the contents she needed out of it and laying them out neatly on the bed next to her. Deciding to start on potions (it was always best to get the most torturous assignment over with first) she leaned back on the head board and opened the thick tome and got out a fresh sheet of parchment, setting to work.

After about ten minutes she closed the book, emitting a frustrated sigh. She couldn't get herself to concentrate on the task at hand no matter how hard she 

tried. She rubbed her eyes wearily and looked over at the clock by her bed. It was almost time for supper. She still hadn't decided if she would go or not. She wouldn't mind seeing Harry but Ron would probably be there, and she would have rather sold her soul to the devil then see him. However, she realized as her stomach growled, she may not have a choice.

Hermione decided to go out and raid the fridge in the common room to see if there was anything edible in there. Having a fridge was one of the perks of being Head Girl. Ron had often taken to raiding it himself when he was visiting with Hermione. Quickly pushing her thoughts away from Ron, whom she had conveniently nicknamed _stupid horndog bastard_, Hermione opened the fridge. After a quick scouring, she decided on a banana.

Sitting down at the counter, she peeled it open, her eyes wandering up to the hearth above the fire place where they landed on a picture of Hermione and…well, you know who. They were smiling and he had his arm around Hermione, a few steamy mugs of Butterbeer placed in front of them. They had been sitting outside on bench and the snow was falling down around them. It was a perfect picture of a "perfect" couple, and it sent Hermione into a new wave of anger. She stormed over to the picture and picked it up, hurtling it across the room with all the strength she could muster. It hit the hall and shattered into pieces.

"Merlin, Granger!" yelled the person who had just entered through the portrait hole. "You could have killed me!"

"If I had wanted to kill you I would have used a much more effective method," Hermione snapped.

"What's got your knickers in a twist mudblood?" Draco asked, looking amused.

Hermione glared at him. "None of your business."

Draco just shrugged and picked up the broken frame. As his eyes registered the image he smirked. "I take it you two broke up? Weasley finally get tired of you?"

Hermione's heart stung at his words, remembering that Ron had cheated on her. "I broke up with him," she said. "Not that it's any of your business."

"Finally saw how worthless he is?" Draco asked. "I don't blame you, I wouldn't want to get mixed up in his family either. A bunch of trash, they are."

"The Weasley family is not "trash."" Hermione snapped angrily. "Only Ron is."

Draco looked at her. "What did he do to make your break up with him?" He actually was kind of interested. They had been so lovey-dovey the last few months and this 

was a drastic change. It was sickening really. He actually had to run to bathroom to puke a couple of times…almost. So their break up was a huge surprise to him.

"None of your business," she said for the third time that night, as she resumed eating her banana. She walked over to Draco, who was staring at her and wondering what on earth she was walking toward him for. She yanked the picture out of his hand and threw it in the fire, using her wand to clean up the rest of the broken pieces.

She now felt strangely calm. She knew she should have been freaking out and wondering what was "wrong" with her that would make Ron cheat on her, but she wasn't like that. She wasn't going to degrade herself just because some boy couldn't fully appreciate her. She was worth more than that.

Damn straight.

"See you later," she said to Malfoy, chucking the banana peel in the trash and heading back into her room.

:;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

"Just give her time mate," Harry said, patting Ron the back. "She'll come around. Why is she so mad at you anyways?"

Ron turned bright red and mumbled something about not feeling like talking about it.

"Ron!"

Ron took his head out of his hands and looked up at the girl walking toward him and groaned when he saw who it was.

"We need to talk," she said to him, sitting on his other side on the couch and staring at him. "Harry, would you leave us alone for minute?"

Harry raised his eyebrows. "I…guess," he said, very confused.

"Not now, Mallory," Ron snapped, wanting to get the woman that had helped tear him and Hermione apart away from him. "You need to go."

"But Ron-"

"Dammit, Mallory, don't you understand English? Just go!" He said, standing up and storming angrily over to the stairs and up to his dorm as Mallory started to cry silently, her hand over her mouth

Harry stared back and forth between the two, not sure whether to make sure Mallory was okay or go after Ron. He startled as the girl next to him hiccupped.

"You okay?" he asked stupidly, seeing as all the signs pointed out that she wasn't.

"I can't believe it! He said he loved me," she said sadly.

Harry's mouth dropped open. "What?" he said, swirling a finger in his ear, sure that what he had heard had resulted from a buildup of wax.

"He said he would break up with his girlfriend for me, but apparently he hasn't. I can't believe I slept with him,"

"You and Ron slept together?" Harry asked incredulously.

The girl nodded, still crying.

"He has, had," Harry corrected himself, "A girlfriend! You knew about him and Hermione, the whole school did! How could you do that to her?"

"I didn't want to hurt her!" the girl said defensively. "He told me things were going really badly for them and that they had talked about going back to being friends. I should have known when I saw him kissing her this morning that something was up. He obviously lied just to get me in bed. I can't believe she _saw_ us. Ugh!"

Harry had absolutely no sympathy for her. "Serves you right, you fucking slut," he spat angrily, walking off and leaving her on the couch to be stared at by all the onlookers in the common room. He pounded up the steps furious with Ron. He had never thought Ron would do something like that, but he was not about to let him get away with it.

He walked in the room to see Ron sitting on the side of the bed, looking for all the world like a lost puppy. He looked up as Harry came in and opened his mouth to say something but the raven-haired youth beat him to it.

"I can't believe you would do that to Hermione!"

Ron gulped. There had been very few times throughout the seven years they'd known each other that he'd seen Harry this mad. "Mate—"

"She doesn't deserve this!"

Ron stood up, "Please, just calm down."

Harry glared at him, eyes narrowed in disgust. He was using all control he had not to hex Ron. "How could you cheat on Hermione with that slut?

"I didn't cheat on her!" Ron lied, hoping to fool Harry.

"Don't give me that shit, I'm not stupid," Harry spat. "She told me everything."

"Hermione's here?" Ron asked hopefully.

"I was talking about Mallory."

"Oh," Ron's face fell.

"You didn't really expect her to come back after what you did?"

"It didn't mean anything though!"

Harry stared at him incredulously. "Please, God, tell me you didn't say _that_ to her?"

"It's the truth!" Ron exclaimed desperately.

"Gods Ron! You're such a dumbass! I can't blame Hermione for hating you!"

"So you're on her side now?" Ron spat angrily.

"I was never on your side. You cheated on her Ron! That is so," Harry racked his brain for a proper term, "fucked up."

"People make mistakes, and neither of you gave me a chance to explain."

"Can you blame her? What would you do if you found out Hermione had cheated on you?"

Ron had nothing to say to that. Harry sat down on his bed and laughed hollowly. "Man, you really screwed up didn't you? Literally."

"If you're going to be a jackass you can just leave," Ron said sullenly.

"Whatever."

"Or you could help me figure out how to get her back," he added hopefully. "I'm not good at this stuff."

"Obviously."

Ron said something not so nice. Harry chose to ignore him.

"It's going to take more than flowers and a box of chocolates to get her to talk to you again."

"You're right.This is hopeless.

"Yeah, but you may as well try," Harry said, getting up to leave.

"Wait, you didn't tell me what to do!"

"I'm going to go talk to Hermione."

"You're not going to ask her are you?"

"Of course not I'm not an idiot. I'm gonna make sure she's okay. And, like I said, what you did was fucked up. The only reason I haven't beaten you to a pulp right now is because I'm dating your sister and she'd probably kill me if I didn't let her kick your ass first. Or worse, break up with me."

"I appreciate that."

Harry walked out the door without another word.

:;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Hermione was pacing around her room, purging her room of all things that had any trace of Ron-ness about them. (This sadly included several books she had grown rather fond of.) Her muggle stereo she'd brought with her was playing a song in the background, which she was humming softly too. So far she had filled one bin with an assortment of letters and pictures, among other things and was halfway up the second. She planned to ritualistically burn every last item in the fire. It was much more satisfying than just making them disappear with her wand. (It's a girl thing.) It was few moments before the brunette realized that someone was calling her name.

She walked over to the portrait hole, Draco nowhere to be seenj. "Harry? Ron's not with you is he?"

"No. I'm flying solo."

Hermione opened the door, looking at Harry, not sure if he hated her or not. "Hi," she said carefully.

"Can I come in?" Harry gestured.

"I suppose." She watched as he stepped in, not yet sure how to act.

"This place is bigger than I remember."

"Really? Huh…" Hermione trailed off.

"…."

"…."

AwKwArD.

"I didn't come here to tell you I hate you." Harry assured.

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good to hear."

"What Ron did was—"

"Selfish? Manipulative? Unforgivable?"

"I was going to say stupid, but those are much more accurate words."

"So you talked to him?"

Harry nodded. "He feels awful."

"Good."

"So I take it you're not planning on forgiving him any time soon."

The look Hermione gave him was answer enough.

"Don't you think you guys could at least _try_—"

"Harry I'm not in the mood. Unless you want to spend the next week in the hospital wing, do not go where you're going," Hermione warned.

Harry raised his hands in surrender. "Fair enough. So, how are you?"

Hermione knew he was talking about more than her superficial health. "I'm fine."

Harry eyed her disbelievingly.

She laughed. "Really. You don't need to worry."

"Ron stuff?" Harry asked, staring around at the bins (they had wandered into her room and Hermione had resumed her purging). Hermione snatched a letter out of his hands and threw it inside a random bin.

"Yep."

"Gonna burn it?"

"Yeah," Hermione said, surprised that he knew.

"Ginny told me her friend burned all the stuff from her ex."

"It's a girl thing," Hermione agreed. "But I really do want to get this done. I'll talk to you tomorrow?" she said a bit apologetically

"Oh, um, of course. If you need to talk though, I may not be a girl but, I know some stuff about this. And if I don't know we could always ask Ginny…" he trailed off awkwardly.

Hermione laughed, giving him a one armed hug. "Thanks but that won't be necessary."

He smiled at her and walked out the door. After he left Hermione shut her door and turned up her stereo, getting back to work as the music filled the room.

**Hey, for every review I get over twenty, I'll add an extra page to the next chapter (My average is about this much each time). So if you want longer chapters, review! Quicker updates come too with each review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Dude! I know it's been forever, and all you have is this lame chapter. Eh, sorry. Hopefully I'll be on here more often now. **

**Playing With Fire**

**Chapter Two**

"Did you hear?"

"Weasley and Granger broke up."

"Are you serious?"

"I heard he was really a vampire, and that she found out when she followed him back to his lair."

"I heard she's pregnant, and he ditched her."

"Sshhh, here she comes!"

The group of girls turned to look as Hermione made her way down the hall, on her way to the Great Hall for lunch. The Head Girl was feeling much better than she had last night. After having burned every last thing she could find that had reminded her of Ron, she had taken a nice long hot shower and then gone back to her room, where she had managed to pack in an hour or two of studying before finally nodding off. She was now on her way outside to enjoy the nice fall weather before she headed off to her next class.

Hermione stopped short just at the entrance to the Great Hall, staring at the group of Slytherin girls who were all watching her on the other side of the hall. One of the girls leaned over and whispered something to one of the other girls, who smirked and nodded, never taking her eyes off Hermione.

On edge, Hermione put her hand into her robes pocket, closing her fingers around her wand as she made her way briskly past them, staring pointedly straight ahead. People really did seem to be taking the time to stare at her lately. At first she had been utterly confused by this, thinking that maybe she had something on her face and had made many unnecessary trips to the bathroom. It was only on her third time exiting the bathroom, when Sarah from Hufflepuff had stopped her in the hall to give her a hug and tell her she was sorry, that Hermione figured out that the school must have heard about the break up.

She reached out toward the door, happy to be able to get out from under the Slytherin girl's withering stares when it suddenly flew open and bonked her right on the head, sending her over backward.

"Watch it," she said in an annoyed tone, hand to her head. She had landed bum first on the floor, the books scattered across the stone.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry," came a voice apologetically. "Are you alright?" she continued worriedly, her voice suddenly faltering and taking on a much higher pitch.

Hermione looked up at the being that had knocked her down and felt her face turn red as she recognized the girl before her. Hermione frowned as she jumped off the cold surface angrily, ignoring the hand the girl still held out to her, as though it were frozen in place. She looked absolutely horrified, and the dirty look Hermione gave her didn't do anything to make her feel better.

Hermione could feel herself bubbling in anger as Mallory just stood there staring at her like an idiot as she used her wand to gather all her books back into her arms. She would have liked nothing more than to curse the stupid bimbo into another dimension.

"Hermione?" came Mallory's timid voice. She waited for Hermione to respond, but the Head Girl only walked past her, acting as though she didn't exist. Which as far as Hermione was concerned, she didn't.

"Hermione please!" Mallory said desperately, grabbing her arm before she could successfully make it outside. "Can we please just talk? Please?"

Hermione stopped and glared down where Mallory's fingers was still hooked beseechingly around arm, and yanked herself free. "If you touch me again, it'd better be because you have a death wish," she snarled.

"I know you're angry, but please just listen to me for just a minute," Mallory begged.

Hermione stared at her in disbelief. "Why should I?"

"You don't understand! It's not—it wasn't—he said he it wasn't working out with you two!"

"So that makes it okay?" Hermione screeched, her anger getting the best of her.

The younger girl faltered, tears spilling down her cheeks. Hermione watched her in disgust and found that she didn't care. She normally wasn't a very sadistic person, but right now, staring at the girl that had caused her world to crash, she wanted her to be hurting.

"Please, please try to understand. He said was going to break up with you."

"I don't want to hear it," Hermione said, ignoring the stares people were sending their way. "I'm done talking to you. Go do what you want. Fuck Ron again. Fuck all the sodding guys in the school if you want. I don't care."

"Hermione, wait—"

Hermione ignored her and hurried outside, slamming the door in her face. She leaned against the oak doors for a moment, trying to control her shaky breaths and wiping away a few stray tears that were making their way down her red cheeks. After a few minutes she stood up, and began on her way once again.

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End file.
